Steam without pulseaudio

[FrostyX]

When I do not want pulseaudio in my system, is it ok when I remove pulseaudio from dependences in ebuild? I suppose sound won't work, but will steam work?

[anyc]

You can try and start steam with SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam. Afair PA libraries were required to be able to start steam in the first versions, but PA was not required to run. But I don't know if this is still true.

[FrostyX]

Cause I got this

 $[FrostyX  ~]-> SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam
 Repairing installation, linking /home/frostyx/.steam/steam to /home/frostyx/.local/share/Steam
 Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1359141904_client)
 Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1359141904_client)
 unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
 Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1359141904_client)
 [0128/113235:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(239)] Failed to call method:           org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
 [0128/113235:WARNING:proxy_service.cc(646)] PAC support disabled because there is no system      implementation
 client_api.cpp (275) : Assertion Failed: ClientAPI_InitGlobalInstance: InternalAPI_Init_Internal failed.

 Assert( Assertion Failed: ClientAPI_InitGlobalInstance: InternalAPI_Init_Internal failed.
  ):/home/buildbot/buildslave_steam/steam_rel_client_ubuntu12_linux/build/src/steamui/../common/steam/client_api.cpp:275

 Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1359141904_client)
 Uploading dump (in-process) [proxy '']
 /tmp/dumps/assert_20130128113236_1.dmp
 success = yes
 response:  CrashID=bp-5e9b3c52-1981-4f2a-bf29-360bf2130128
 SteamStartup.cpp (569) : Assertion Failed: ! "There was a problem with your Steam installation.\n" "Please      reinstall steam.\n"
 Shutting down. . .
 unlinked 2 orphaned pipes
 CAsyncIOManager: 0 threads terminating.  0 reads, 0 writes, 0 deferrals.
 CAsyncIOManager: 1659 single object sleeps, 0 multi object sleeps
 CAsyncIOManager: 0 single object alertable sleeps, 1 multi object alertable sleeps

and I dont know if its caused by pulseaudio or something other.

[anyc]

Yeah, stdout & err of steam is not really helpful. Try to start with LD_DEBUG="all" SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam. Then you get a lot of output from the linker and you'll see if its aborting due to linking issues.

[FrostyX]

It's few last lines

 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/bin/bash [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libreadline.so.6 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libncurses.so.5 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libdl.so.2 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libc.so.6 [0]
 22207: binding file /lib/libncurses.so.5 [0] to /lib/libc.so.6 [0]: normal symbol `__cxa_finalize' [GLIBC_2.1.3]
 22207: 
 22207: calling fini: /lib/libdl.so.2 [0]
 22207: 
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/bin/bash [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libreadline.so.6 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libncurses.so.5 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libdl.so.2 [0]
 22207: symbol=__cxa_finalize;  lookup in file=/lib/libc.so.6 [0]
 22207: binding file /lib/libdl.so.2 [0] to /lib/libc.so.6 [0]: normal symbol `__cxa_finalize' [GLIBC_2.1.3]

[anyc]

The last lines won't help. You'll have to look for an error between. Maybe you'll get it working by installing PA but don't starting the daemon?

You can also search the steam forums or their bug tracker that's linked in our README. I guess there are others who'd like to use steam without PA. I had problems in the past, too, but today it's working fine.

[FrostyX]

Its really impossible find some error line when I have no idea what I am looking for. In small file it isn't problem, but this file has 881700 lines. There is link to this debug log http://www.ulozto.net/xdCBbHv/steam-log (I wanted post it to some pastebin, but neither one could handle it).

[anyc]

He looks for libpulse.so.0 and aborts execution afterwards. So, not much we can do about it.

[FrostyX]

Yes, was pulseaudio problem. I have installed it and it worked well. So I did chmod -x /usr/bin/pulseaudio and still work. So there is no running pulseaudio and steam works. Problem solved.

[anyc]

Ah, great. I'll remember that.

[DX94-Quas]

The problem is solved by setting Microphone device to ALSA in voice settings. by default it is set to Pulseaudio, and if is not set to any other device the first time Steam is launched, it will not start again